Part 1
Tolkien's three volume work chronicles the struggle in the Middle-earth to destroy an evil ring of power. While it is a rich and varied tale in itself, it is a smaller part of the vast cosmogony Tolkien created. One may wonder what the emotional significance and meaning may be of this focal metaphor of the ring around which Tolkien's tale is constructed. Understanding the significance of this ring opens up a very complex drama of good and evil expressing basic truths about man's emotional and social relationships to others. It sheds light on the development of identity and the definition of the self. Tolkien is able to represent the internal struggles with childhood fantasy complete with affective charge and vivid imagery that dry metapsychology cannot. In the end he is able to delineate what it means to accept the role of the fully independent adult.
Critics of those who undertake psychoanalytic analyses of literature make objections that reductionistic dismemberment of a body of literature is hardly equitable. This author must agree. However, this analysis is not intended to reduce the work to a set of psychological principles or to comment on any personal matters regarding Tolkien himself. Rather, it is intended as a comment on the psychological complexity of Tolkien's work and as a starting point to understanding metapsychological principles without resorting to dull, dry terms. For the sake of simplicity, The Fellowship of the Ring is abbreviated as FR, The Return of the King as RK, and The Silmarillion as S. These are the Houghton Mifflin (Boston, 1993 and 1977 respectively) versions and have different page numbers than the Ballantine editions.
The actual significance and power of the ruling ring is slowly unveiled as Tolkien's story progresses. Long before the actions delineated in the story had been set out there was a great struggle. Long ago, an evil force in the world, Sauron, had deceived the elves and men and dwarves of the Middle-earth. He had pretended to befriend the elves in an attempt to gain control of the world by persuading their leader Celebrimbor to help him fashion rings of power ostensibly to guard and preserve the world. Celebrimbor who loved the skillful making of things created three rings which have the power of preserving and protecting all that is fair in the world. Nine other rings were created by Celebrimbor and Sauron together. Having gained much knowledge from his contact with the elves, Sauron withdrew and fashioned an evil ring of power which he hoped to use to enslave the world. When Sauron first attempted to use this ring, the elves became aware of the deception and hid from him the three untainted rings. Thus, a great war began between Sauron's forces and the combined forces of elves, men and the other inhabitants of the world. Unfortunately, though Sauron is defeated in the first great battle by Gilgalad and Isuldur, he is not destroyed and his ring of power is lost for many years until it is found by a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who gives it to his nephew Frodo. It is at this point that the dramatic movement in Tolkein's trilogy begins. The works chronicle the plan formulated by the people of the Middle-earth to take the evil One Ring back to its place of origin, Mt. Doom, to cast it into the fire and destroy it thus destroying the power of Sauron and preserving the world from darkness and domination.
